The World Bank has created a new global initiative to boost the deployment of low-carbon hydrogen in developing countries, called the Hydrogen for Development Partnership (H4D), which will produce, collect, curate and disseminate accurate knowledge about hydrogen to countries that need it.

The partnership aims to foster capacity-building, regulation, business models and technologies in developing countries and will see $2–3bn of World Bank financing blended with other sources of public and private sector financing.

“Low-carbon hydrogen can have a significant role in countries seeking to accelerate their clean energy transition,” says David Malpass, president of the World Bank.

“Our new hydrogen partnership will enable developing countries to prepare low-carbon hydrogen projects and boost energy security and resilience for their people while lowering emissions.”

For low- and middle-income countries, low-carbon hydrogen has the potential to generate export revenues and jobs. 

“Our new hydrogen partnership will enable developing countries to prepare low-carbon hydrogen projects” Malpass, World Bank

The main activities of the H4D partnership will include convening international cooperation and knowledge-sharing, actively fostering collaboration between private sector partners on specific projects and helping provide guidance on policy.

The initiative will be based on the experience the World Bank has gained from a similar programme to promote electricity storage and batteries in the developing world.

Private sector firms as well as governments in developing countries will benefit from the knowledge-sharing.

“We need to know how to utilise our existing infrastructure in the first decade to pivot and support developed markets that are looking for green hydrogen,” says Priscillah Mabelane, executive vice-president at South African energy firm Sasol, speaking at a Cop27 side-event.

“Until we work closely with government in a public private partnership to bring competencies together… South Africa will not be able to succeed in this.”

Chile will also look to benefit from the initiative, according to the country’s energy minister, Diego Pardow, speaking at the same event.

“We need initiatives that provide certainty of demand to developers and certainty to the communities involved that we will create more well-paid industrial jobs,” he says.

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Author: Tom Young